Talking story, sharing spirit of Hawaiian culture this weekend

Every picture tells a story — and in traditional Hawaiian culture, so does every song, dance, item of clothing and even food.

“Music, hula, chant, kapa and language are all vessels of a story, whether that story be history, whether it be the present, or an experience, a namesake or place name, or where you are or where you come from,” says Susanne Kagami, a Hawaiian music presenter and organizer of a special cultural gathering in Lafayette this weekend. “It’s all different forms of keeping tradition alive and keeping the stories alive … Food is also a form of storytelling. How you make your kalua pig is different from someone on the other side of the island who had different woods, different herbs, and it’s kind of cool. And you have pride in ‘This is how we did it.’”

The two-day Spirit Hawai‘i — a series of interactive presentations (“workshop” sounds a bit dry to Kagami) and demonstrations at Lafayette Community Center, capped by a Sunday night lū‘au — features storytellers who represent a wide range of cultural practices. From the island of Hawaii come kumu hula Pua Case, a longtime proponent of Hawaiian ocean voyaging who last visited the Bay Area with the pan-Polynesian Pacific Voyagers sailing canoes; her singer-songwriter daughter Hawane Rios, who recently won an inaugural Big Island Music Award for her first-ever recording, “Poli‘ahu i Ke Kapu” (see video below.) Case will share her knowledge of ocean voyaging and together they will teach hula and chant about the sacred mountain on Mauna Kea, where a proposed 18-story observatory has upset Native Hawaiians, including Case, who see the mountain as sacred.

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Kumu hula Pua Case of Waimea will share songs, chants and stories of Mauna Kea and share her experiences with ocean voyaging at Spirit Hawaii.

“We have a saying at home: sense of place, sense of identity,” Case says. “What it’s about is connection. It’s about learning about where you live, first, and then having a responsibility to care for that place. When you don’t know the names of your hills, they’re strangers to you. What happens to them doesn’t even enter into your mind. There’s not even an awareness of having to be responsible for them, to care for them, to ensure that the generations after us have at least a fragment of what we still have.”

When “you know the name of the hill nearest to you, your mountain, your stream that gives you your life force of water, all of those things that surround you in your environment, … then you start to learn stories, chants, wise sayings. You start to knowyour history of that place,” explains Case. “And once you get that firm beginning, you have to continually be in that place, whether it’s up the mountain or at the river, wherever you’ve decided to be the steward. You can do it through singing, such as when Hawane wrote that song” about Mauna Kea.

“It brought her closer to the mountain. She knew who the deity was,” says Case, referring to Poli‘ahu, the snow goddess associated with Mauna Kea. “She knew that the mountain had life, was alive, and she looked at it in a deeper way. It’s about becoming more deeply connected in an active way.”

Also coming from Moku o Keawe are renowned slack key and steel guitarist Sonny Lim who produced Rios’ recording and who “performs everywhere,” Kagami says; and fellow musical scion Keoki Kahumoku, who will share his ‘ukulele and slack key expertise. “We’ll have a few classes of them teaching about the music of the islands — what is the background of that music, how is that telling story — and whatever your instrument is, you can still sit in,” Kagami notes.

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Hawaiian musician and educator Keoki Kahumoku (right) will teach how to prepare ahi poke and share stories and songs at the two-day Spirit Hawaii gathering.

Kahumoku, whom Kagami describes as “true aloha,” will also be bringing some special ingredients on the plane with him for his food demonstrations, including laulau and poi. He’s also going to show how he makes poke, “and how he was brought up to make it,” Kagami adds. “We’ll have a good time and we’ll eat some great food.”

Northern California’s wealth of cultural practitioners will also be represented by Honolulu-born kahu Keli‘i Lindo of Sacramento, who will give a presentation on poi “and Hawaiians’ relationship to kalo,” Kagami says, using the Hawaiian name for taro, whose corm is pounded to make poi. Kapa maker Wendeanne Ke‘aka Stitt of Santa Cruz will bring her handmade implements and dyes for creating patterned cloth out of the mulberry tree (wauke). Antioch kumu hula and Hawaiian language instructor Kau‘i Peralto, originally from the island of Hawai‘i and a key part of the Pacific Voyagers’ visit here last year, will also participate in the kapa session and, with her daughter Hi‘ilani Wright explore the evolution of Hawaiian people through songs, chants and stories.

“The idea for Spirit Hawai‘i “came from my personal journey, wanting to understand my ancestors, being Hawaiian but born and raised on the mainland, where we’re not exposed to a lot of cultural aspects of our heritage,” Kagami says. “In Hawai‘i, there’s a huge resurgence in language, culture, hula, even in grade school; here we don’t really have that exposure, that luxury. I want to share it with other folks who are like me, born here and Hawaiian, or who just love the culture and don’t know exactly why, but there’s something very strong and powerful about it.”

Born in Los Angeles, Kagami has lived in San Francisco since grade school and has been involved as a promoter with Hawaii Music Live for about seven years, while also raising a family.

“My son is 6, so he’s around this and he chants with me, and if I can give him anything about the culture, I’m going to try my best and give him as much as I can,” Kagami says. “I’m a conduit for people who want to learn more about my culture, so my role is to try to bring this wonderful culture here and pass it on to the next generation. Hopefully they’ll have the opportunity to take this further and share it further.”

The cost of the two-day event with lū‘au dinner and concert is $180 (one day with lū‘au, $110; one day only, $80; lū‘au only, $45 adults, $35 youth) with group discounts available; see www.hawaiimusiclive.com for details.